


Not Weird

by FrodaB



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-09
Updated: 2010-05-09
Packaged: 2017-11-01 23:23:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrodaB/pseuds/FrodaB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It's not weird. Just insane.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Weird

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com/profile)[**thewlisian_afer**](http://thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com/) for making sure it's more or less grammatically correct.

It’s a rather ignominious start to a relationship, she has to admit later. Tony will jokingly characterize it as starlight and fireworks and sweeping her off her feet, of course, but all she’ll be able to remember is her ears ringing with the explosion that went off only feet away as he carried her off, and the cold night air on that roof top, and the sudden awkwardness of the suit as they kissed.

“Was that weird?” he asks.

It’s not weird. It’s really not. Just _insane_ , like everything else about him.

\-----------

She’s really put her foot in it this time.

She’s imagined how it might happen. It’s kind of impossible not to. Tony is _Tony_ , after all, and part of the reason Pepper is still around is because he’s charmed her just like he charms everyone else.

But she’s always known where to draw the line, until now.

It’s just like him to sneak in under her skin when she’s feeling particularly vulnerable.

\-----------

It’s rough, really rough. Their first date (Tony says it’s the second, but Pepper really doesn’t want death and destruction to be the backdrop to the beginning of their romance), he tries _way_ too hard, and she has to remind him that she’s not a Maxim cover model, and that she’s known him for ten years and that line would never have worked on her, ever.

The next date goes a lot better, until Iron Man has to fly off to resolve a hostage situation in Belize. They nearly get to second base.

It’s two more dates before they sleep together.

\-----------

Pepper is used to attention by now, good and bad. She’s come to expect it. People with cameras and tape recorders have always followed Tony (and by extension, _her_ ) around everywhere.

Bad press can be annoying, but she deals with it. Even when talking heads call her “pinhead Potts” her first week as CEO. And she knows it’ll only get worse when it inevitably leaks that she and Tony are an item.

She’s expecting it, but when it really starts to hit, she spends about three hours contemplating breaking up with him. Because she feels such utter revulsion at the prospect of having every intimate detail splattered over the tabloids, and the very thought of trying to keep it all hush-hush is exhausting.

Board meetings take on an extra air of hostility, while she’s trying to focus on profit margins and budget balancing and appeasing the investors while trying to move the company in the direction she wants.

She will not tell Tony about it, because this is her fight, and anything he could do would just make it worse, and anyway he still keeps _so many_ things from her. It’s petty, but Pepper is not a saint.

\-----------

Within about three weeks, it’s becoming both as good and as bad as she ever imagined it could be.

Good, because Tony really is a good person, she’s always known this, and he respects her and cares about her, and she’s always known _that_ , too. He’s never done this before, but he’s trying, and besides all that, he’s as good in bed as Pepper always figured he would be.

And bad, because all the reasons why this is a terrible idea are still there. They haven’t gone away, and Pepper is constantly reminded of their presence.

\-----------

Pepper admitted to herself that she was in love with Tony during those terrible weeks when everyone (including her) kept saying that surely he would be found soon, and everything would go back to normal, but everyone (including her) really knew that it was much more likely that months, maybe even years would pass, and eventually they might find his dried out remains in the sand of the Afghanistan desert.

During that time, she went about her normal routine, but realized that she could no longer envision her life without Tony Stark in it. If not for Tony, she might have less stressful insanity and more… what? Free time? The possibility of marriage to a nice guy? Kids?

She never wanted those things, anyway, and much as she complains, because _someone_ has to remind Tony that he’s not a god, she knows something would be missing without that face, voice, _personality_.

It was okay. She acclimated herself to being in love, like the body might acclimate itself to a drug, over time. She adjusted. Just like she adjusted to the radical changes in him, after he got back. Just like she adjusted to her boss, the superhero. In a way.

\-----------

That’s what Tony does. He throws her for a loop, then puts on the puppy dog eyes that she pretends to be immune to.

Or, like on that roof top, with the Stark Expo in ruins, he kisses her so she won’t quit her job. It’s so typical of him, to be like that.

It’s not weird. It’s really not. Just _insane_ , like everything else. There are a million reasons why it probably won’t work, they’re not going away anytime soon.

And there are a million reasons why she’s going to _make it_ work.


End file.
